Hezbollah fully supports Palestinian cause: Sayyed Nasrallah

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has reiterated support for the cause of the Palestinian people and their uprising against the Israeli regime, saying that Palestine is the “central battle” in the region.

“The region witnesses an active and popular movement to defend al-Aqsa in what seems like a third Intifada,” Nasrallah said during a speech on Wednesday addressing people commemorating the first night of the holy month of Muharram in Sayyid Shuhada Complex in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, Lebanon’s al-Manar news website reported.

“Palestinian people have no choice but resistance, they are the leaders of this battlefield, let them decide their form of resistance,” he said, adding that they have the “full” support of Hezbollah and further called for a worldwide support against the Israeli occupation.

He also hailed the Palestinian people for their courageous confrontations against the Israeli enemy in al-Quds, the Gaza Strip, and different areas across the occupied West Bank.

Saudis’ ultimate disrespect to Muslims
Elsewhere in his remarks, Nasrallah lashed out at Saudi Arabia for its “incompetence in handling the Hajj pilgrimage for this year,” in which a deadly crush occurred during the rituals in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca.

He said the tragedy reflected the extent of Saudi officials’ disregard for Muslims’ holy sites and the Hajj pilgrimage.

Riyadh even “did not apologize for the incident, but it released a statement in which it hailed the managing of Hajj for this year,” he said, adding that “this tragedy in the holy country, in the holy month shows Saudi’s ultimate disrespect to Muslims and Islamic rituals.”

“The only loud voice against the Saudi performance was by Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei,” the Leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, he added.

The crush occurred on September 24 after two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads in Mina during the symbolic ceremony of the stoning of Satan in Jamarat.

Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the tragic crush in Mina, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say over 4,500 people, including 464 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives in the tragedy. However, some sources put the death toll at 1,674.

In his speech, Nasrallah also referred to the status quo in three Middle Eastern countries, namely Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain. He hailed the Yemenis’ bravery and steadfastness against the Saudi aggression on the impoverished country and called the current war in Syria a “universal” war. The Hezbollah leader also slammed the crackdown carried out by the Al Khalifa regime against the Bahraini people in the Persian Gulf island state.